Keep your fleet on patrol with TIP European roadside assistance
Last winter a 40-tonne lorry became stuck in the snow at a service station in Wales. Driving on was simply impossible. Luckily, a nearby group of 20 soldiers from the Royal Marines was able to assist by linking arms and pushing the truck back on the road again (source Daily Mail).
Unfortunately, life is seldom a fairy tale and soldiers are rarely miraculously available when your trailer encounters a problem on its travels. Besides, rescuing truck drivers and their rigs from trouble is not in a typical Royal Marine’s job description. Fortunately, TIP Roadside Assistance is just a call away to get your driver, truck and trailer safely back on patrol and maybe even into a “platoon”.
Roadside breakdowns on the rise
Unforeseen trailer breakdown occurs more often than we want. Indeed, if our experience in Europe bears any relation to that of the road freight transport industry in the USA, then the number of roadside breakdowns is increasing.
According to the Truckload Vertical Benchmarking Study (TVBS), breakdowns in the USA increased by 21% in Q1 2018 over Q4 2017. On average, the fleets participating in the survey suffered a breakdown every 14,702 km during Q1. The best performing fleets did not suffer any issues for 54,410 km whilst the lowest performer had a breakdown every 13,011 km. (source: TT News)
Top 5 roadside repairs
The TVBS identified the top five most frequent categories of repair required on the roadside. In Q1 2018, they accounted for 58% of all repairs compared to 37% in Q4 2017. They were:
- Exhaust systems – the most frequent repair category with 139,200 repairs in Q1 versus 235,026 in Q4 2017.
- Wheels, rims, hubs, and bearings.
- Tyres – which failed on average every 52,678 km with the top performing fleets recorded a 45% lower repair rate than average.
- Lighting – The average fleet needed a repair every 70,471 km whilst the best in class fleets required a lighting repair every 66,1993 km.
Preventative roadside assistance
Unexpected roadside repairs are costly and increase trailer downtime. Gary Cummings, CEO of FleetNet calculates that a roadside repair can cost as much as four times more than a workshop repair. (source: TT News)
The other costs of roadside repair include the safety risks to the driver and trailer as they wait on the motorway kerbside for rescue and the costs of time taken by the trailer downtime as alternative trailers are found to complete the deliveries.
In addition to signing up to a preventative maintenance and repair programme that companies such as TIP provide, fleet managers can reduce costs by registering for an emergency breakdown service ahead of an incident. Typically, it is more expensive to sign up to an emergency service provider on the scene of an incident than to pre-register.
TIP Roadside Assistance – 86,000 roadside incidents handled
TIP provides a pan European breakdown service for your trailers 24/7, 365 days per year. TIP offers support in 18 languages and has roadside assistance contact numbers in 16 European countries including Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. TIP has extensive experience in supporting its customers on the roadside. In 2017, TIP handled 86,000 roadside incidents. (source: TIP annual report 2017)
On the road again
With TIP Roadside Assistance, you enjoy access to our extensive network of partners and technicians who will rapidly ensure that your drivers can continue their journeys. We give assistance through our network of workshops and our fleet of mobile service vans. We increased our fleet of mobile service units from 159 in 2016 to 179 in 2017 and are regularly adding more. (source: TIP annual report 2017)
Our mobile vans hold an impressive selection of workshop equipment, power supplies and tools and a stock of spares to cover the most common problems including ripped curtains on curtainsiders and small bodywork repairs. Our vehicles are also equipped with complex trailer diagnostics technology to test brakes and detect electrical faults.
Get your fleet on patrol with TIP
Enjoy peace of mind with TIP Roadside Assistance! If you want to be prepared for the unexpected, contact TIP and we will inform you about the possibilities.
